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I love Rice Krispie Treats. Love. Them. I was flipping through one of my newest cookbooks, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, and I saw this recipe. I immediately knew that this was the recipe I would christen my cookbook purchase with. If it is possible to make a Rice Krispie treat elegant, this is how you do it. And on a side note, this is a great cookbook. I was hard-pressed to find something that I didn’t want to make in it. If you like to bake, and maybe want to try some more advanced things, this is a great book to have. I digress.

Not only is the flavor amazing, from the browned butter and vanilla bean, but the marshmallow/Rice Krispie ratio is perfect. One of my peeves is a weak marshmallow-to-cereal ratio. I like heavy marshmallow, and this recipe delivers.

If you have never browned butter before, do not let it scare you. It is really easy, but is a lot like caramel. You have to pay attention. You cannot leave it to fold a load of laundry or step away to get the mail. It goes from perfect to I-need-throw-away-two-sticks-of-butter-and-start-over-this-stinks in about 2 seconds flat.

Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Find a really big bowl and measure out 9 cups of cereal. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat.

Cut the vanilla bean in half, and scrape the seeds with the back of a knife.

Add the vanilla to the melting butter.

The butter will foam and make some noise. It will bubble and crack.

It will start to turn a golden brown color. Watch it carefully because it can burn very quickly.

When the butter is ready, the bubbling will stop and will be brown. It takes about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the marshmallows and salt.

Stir over low heat until marshmallows are completely melted.

See the flecks of brown butter and vanilla beans? You have no idea that a Rice Krispie treat could be this good.

Pour the mamarshmallow over the Rice Krispies. Coat completely with marshmallow.

Press into the prepared 9×13 pan. A trick that makes packing them into the pan easy – I always have disposable gloves on hand. I use them for everything. Spray your gloved hand with cooking spray and press the treats tightly in the pan. Let sit for 2 hours at room temperature before slicing.

Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray. Find a really big bowl and measure out 9 cups of cereal. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Cut the vanilla bean in half, and scrape the seeds with the back of a knife. Add the vanilla to the melting butter. The butter will foam and make some noise. It will bubble and crack. It will start to turn a golden brown color. Watch it carefully because it can burn very quickly. When the butter is ready, the bubbling will stop and will be brown. It takes about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the marshmallows and salt. Stir over low heat until marshmallows are completely melted. Pour the mamarshmallow over the Rice Krispies. Coat completely with marshmallow.

Press into the prepared 9×13 pan. Let sit for 2 hours at room temperature before slicing.

My boyfriend has been snacking on storebought Rice Krispies treats for weeks now, and I’ve been telling him that I could make better (and probably healthier?) ones for him that would be SOOO much better. I think now I’ve found the recipe that will sway him!

I too hate when a rice krispie marshmallow to cereal ratio is off. It is definitely one of my pet peeves. But I would rather have a little too much cereal than not enough. When there’s not enough cereal to the enormous amount of marshmallow goo, it’s just a sad treat.

I’ve really gotten into making different kind of rice krispie treats lately, so I’m going to have to save this for when I’m home for Christmas (I’ve got some vanilla beans stashed away in the pantry 🙂 )

I made these over the weekend while my husband and son were on a road trip checking out colleges. My teenage daughter was a little skeptical about the vanilla bean flecks in “her” rice krispie treats (she doesn’t even like vanilla bean ice cream, how weird is that?), but I told her to trust me. When the treats had cooled down enough to eat, she tried one a little reluctantly and after one bite I couldn’t keep her away from them! This is the only way to make rice krispie treats from now on! Thank you for sharing.

i knew i had to make these the very second i saw this recipe! it’s been a long time since i last made rice kripsie treats and was wondering if they were actually going to taste much different than the generic recipe.
i whipped up a batch on sunday and holy cow…these were so amazing! i brought half of them to my office and even men, who will eat anything, stopped to be like, oh my gosh these are sooo good!

You weren’t kidding when you said these rice krispie treats have the perfect marshmallow to cereal ratio – they look amazingly gooey and chewy! I always make sure my Rice Krispies squares are packed full of marshmallow (who the heck wants a dry mouthful of cereal?). And the idea of browning the butter and adding vanilla bean is simple but brilliant. Your squares are so perfectly square too – I never cut mine that prettily. Great job!

I cannot wait to try these! I notice that the recipe calls for salt, but in reading through the directions I don’t find instructions for when to add it. Did you put it in with the vanilla and butter? Thanks for sharing!

I want to commend this post. Rice Krispies has been trying to push a new recipe as “The Original”, when it’s far from the truth. What you have posted here is much closer to the recipe from many decades ago, which was originally published on the Rice Krispie box. My aunt made treats in the 80’s when I was a real wee little thing, and they were luscious and crazy good. A few years ago, I tried to make some treats, but the new recipe was disgusting. I knew something had to be amiss, because there was NO WAY I screwed the pooch three times, while following the recipe directions to the letter. So I knew the recipe was to blame. I had to scour old recipe boxes I was finding at thrift stores and from people I was asking, to find the ACTUAL original. It was pretty much simply:

1 stick of butter (assumed salted because there was no salt in the recipe) or margarine (always salted)
1 10 oz bag of marsmallows
x vanilla, don’t remember exact quantity, but we can assume something reasonable like a teaspoon
1 box of rice krispie cereal, which at the time was 5 to 6 cups. These days, it’s the “small” box.

THAT was the real recipe my aunt made, because when I made this version, they were perfect. And they looked much like what you have there. In my mind this is what I want, when I want a rice crispie treat. I think the new “Original” recipe is a messy atrocity that makes dry, impalpable cereal bricks. So THANK YOU for being like the only person on the internet, who is posting the same essential recipe. We need to stop being stupid. Rice Krispie treats are not a health food, and never will be.

These were so good! I made them for dessert last night. I used a whole vanilla bean (since you can get them pretty cheaply now–I got mine from IndriVanilla.com for fifty cents apiece) and added a teaspoon of homemade vanilla extract to the marshmallows before melting them. The browned butter makes the flavor amazing, and I love that they’re plenty soft and marshmallowy! I realized just as I was finished mixing them that my 9×13 pan was dirty, so I improvised with a cookie sheet, and they fit in one of those perfectly. Repinned this with my definite recommendation. Thanks for the delicious treat!